Some Wine With Your Law? A Law School Course in Wine

Most students at Boalt Hall School of Law learn by reading class materials and listening to lectures.

But in Room 110, the lessons are sipped.

Glasses of pinot noir are part of Boalt Hall’s first ever wine law class, where students are learning the legal complexities of the wine industry. Lessons include tasting wines to examine the significance and differences between wine appellations, which have become a thorny legal issue.

If any student thought a class involving wine tasting would be a cakewalk, they were disappointed.

And that’s the point, according to the class’ instructor, Richard Mendelson. The Napa attorney, who has both worked in and concentrated his practice on the wine industry, said the law surrounding it is rife with issues involving the 21st Amendment, intellectual property, land use planning and international trade.